Prof. Gao Lingbiao

Professor, Deputy Head of the Centre of Curriculum Studies in Basic Education,
Ministry of Education/South China Normal University

Head of the Institute of Curriculum Studies & Teaching Material Development, 
South China Normal University

Self Introduction:

Please refer to the chinese version for details.  

Presentation Topic:

Relations between Different Factors in General Practical Activities  

Abstract:  
“General Practical Activities” is a new programme in China ’s new national curriculum. Three areas of learning are included in this programme: inquiry learning, social practice and community service. All these activities are based on students’ direct experiences. They relate closely to students’ life and the society and, encourage the active application of school knowledge. General objectives of this programme are:

• To link students learning with their life, to relate schools together with society, to lead students involve actively in practical activities so to learn from practical experiences;

• To deeper students’ understanding about nature, society and their relation;

• To cultivate students’ practical abilities and creativities, to develop their social responsibility and personality.

The implementation of this new programme is greatly affected by a number of factors and their relations. This paper will give our argument on how to deal with these relations properly:  

• The relation between the effort to diversify student learning activities and the need to normalize the management of teaching-learning process.

• The relations between teachers’ direction and students’ self-direction in learning activities.

• The relations between within and extra to classes/schools factors.

• The relations between students’ interests and teachers’ professional strong points and schools’ orientation in specialities.

• The conflicts between the needs of personalized facilitation and the very large scale of class size.

• The relation between personal activity and group activity.

• The relation between the specific characters of a specific project and the generality of all learning projects.

• The relations between the openness, formativeness, activeness, practicality and the need of managing teaching process.